Sudan's main rebel group yesterday welcomed the planned deployment of UN troops in southern Sudan once a final deal is signed to end one of Africa's longest and bloodiest wars.
"This is good news. The deployment will go a long way to support the restoration of peace in southern Sudan," Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) spokesman George Garang said in Nairobi.
Meanwhile, reports of clashes in and around a village in northern Darfur continue to disturb food delivery to thousands of the displaced, UN officials said on Sunday.
One road west of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, leading to the town of Tawilla has been declared a "no-go" zone for UN personnel following reports of "serious disturbances" and rumors of "heavy skirmishes" between the government and the rebel SPLM/A, said Barry Came, a World Food Program (WFP) staffer in Khartoum.
Came said a sense of security prevailed for a couple of days after accords were signed between the Sudanese government and the two main rebel groups on Nov. 10 in Nigeria, promising aid organizations unfettered access to Darfur's displaced cause and banning "hostile" military flights over the region.
"For a couple of days last week it looked like there was a lessening of tension," he said, adding that a camp that hosts 150,000 displaced in Jabal Mara mountains was reached by aid convoys for the first time in two weeks.
WFP trucks loaded with 235 metric tonnes of food were stuck in El Fasher for two days, before commercial trucks instead carried the food to Tawilla on Sunday, Came said.
An eight-member team of African Union Commission personnel left to Tawilla on Sunday to investigate the complaints.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
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